CYPRESS : Council Rejects Motel Conversion

The City Council this week ordered owners of a board-and-care facility on Lincoln Avenue to stop operating because of concerns that the rooms were being rented illegally as apartments.

The council refused to grant Maria Machado of Cerritos a conditional use permit to convert the facility into a motel because of fears that guests would continue to live there on a long-term basis. Before 1978, the property operated as the Jumbo Inn motel.

Speaking on behalf of Machado, Bob Gilbert told the council that more than half of the people staying at the facility are long-term residents. The majority of them are poor and would be out on the streets if the $10-a-night facility were shut down, he said.

“They have people they just don’t want to evict,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert asked the council to give Machado six more months to operate. He said that Machado was trying to sell the property and needed the income from the rentals.

However, in a unanimous vote, the council decided that without significant changes to the building that Machado is not prepared to make, the building would continue to be used as apartments.

“No one in good conscience could approve this as a hotel,” Councilman John Kanel said. “It is not the right place to have this.”

Zoning on that portion of Lincoln Avenue does not allow for residential establishments such as apartments.